Anita West | |
|---|---|
 West in the 1960s | |
| Born | 30 November 1934 |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, television presenter |
| Known for | Blue Peter |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Anita West (born 30 November 1934) is a British former actress and television presenter.
Anita West | |
|---|---|
| West in the 1960s | |
| Born | 30 November 1934 |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, television presenter |
| Known for | Blue Peter |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Anita West (born 30 November 1934) is a British former actress and television presenter.
On 7 May 1962, West joined the British children's television show Blue Peter as co-host, following the departure of Leila Williams. She remained with the programme for only sixteen editions, the last being shown on 3 September 1962, making her one of the programme's shortest-serving presenters (other than stand-ins Ann Taylor, Tony Hart and Sandra Michaels). She voluntarily resigned from the show because of her imminent divorce (in 1962) from the musician Ray Ellington; she believed that audiences would find it inappropriate for a divorcée to present a children's programme. West never divulged her reasons for leaving to the producers, who deemed her "unprofessional" for simply walking out on the show. [1] [2]
West's tenure was so short that, for several decades, she was not officially recognised as a Blue Peter presenter, only being added to the official list of presenters upon the show's 40th anniversary in 1998. [3] In contrast, her replacement, Valerie Singleton, ahead of whom West had come in earlier auditions, [3] became the show's longest-serving female presenter until Konnie Huq. [4] Additionally, due to the BBC's policy of not recording programmes at the time, no footage of West's time on Blue Peter exists. [5]
After leaving Blue Peter, West appeared in such shows as Space: 1999 , Crossroads as Doctor Hilary Maddox, The Saint and Lovejoy . She also briefly returned to Blue Peter in 1998 to appear in its pantomime.
In the 1970s, she was a PR hostess at the Palm Beach Casino Club in Mayfair.
She appeared in the films Impact (1963), Shadow of Fear (1964), Ring of Spies (1964) and Joey Boy (1965). [5]
West was married to Ray Ellington for six years; the couple had a son, Lance, and a daughter, Nina. [6] [7] In 1998, she told Blue Peter's 40th-anniversary documentary BP Confidential that she had no regrets about quitting the show, other than on a professional level, as her children were the most important thing in her life. [3]
The 41-year-old television presenter, who hosted the show for more than ten years between 1997 and 2008, is also the longest serving female presenter of the BBC children's magazine show – a record previously held by Valerie Singleton.
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